The "Hybrid"

[Faustus Fotherby]

My local bar game has died a death, a combination of various players' circumstances has meant the game has collapsed and being an avid board game player then I know how difficult it is to get even 5 people together for a regular board game session, let alone 6-9 for a SnG style pub tournament.

Anyway I was talking to one of the guys who used to play the pub game and he said that when he's down in Exeter most of the week then he plays in this other bar game that operates under the following, completely bonkers, rules:

- You buy in for say £10, and receive 5,000 in chips (ahhh tournament you're thinking)

- Blinds start at 10/20 (mmm tasty tournament opening blinds)

- Blinds increase at set intervals and you are given the option to rebuy if you bust (didn't ask about the number of times)

- The game finishes at X time and here's the killer: YOU ARE GIVEN MONEY EQUAL TO YOUR CHIP COUNT! So suddenly your chips are actually worth money and not just a way of working out who's won?!

WHAT!? When did this suddenly become a cash game?! Blinds go up but your prize is the chips you have left at the end of the night?

I stared at this guy incredulously and informed him that I didn't know of any poker site that replicated that "hybrid" format. Maybe I was being hideously closed-minded but now that I'm here I'm actually wondering why there isn't a format that combines these two styles. I assume there is a good reason and I haven't thought a lot about it because I'm still reeling from the bizarreness of it, could someone else shed some light?

Has anyone else played a game like this? What's it like?

[Queso]

I believe they're called "cash-out tournaments". I think I used to play them on Full Tilt. You can quit at any time and cash out your chips for their value. So you could simply quit whenever you doubled up, if you wanted to.

The only catch was, they would only allow it to a certain point: when the prize pool got down to a certain amount. Then they would close it down, and play the rest of it out like a regular tournament.

Not a bad idea I guess if you were already a fan of the DON SNG's.

[Faustus Fotherby]

I believe they're called "cash-out tournaments". I think I used to play them on Full Tilt. You can quit at any time and cash out your chips for their value. So you could simply quit whenever you doubled up, if you wanted to.

The only catch was, they would only allow it to a certain point: when the prize pool got down to a certain amount. Then they would close it down, and play the rest of it out like a regular tournament.

Not a bad idea I guess if you were already a fan of the DON SNG's.

Well I never! I never knew this!

[J_Verschueren]

Yeah, Pokerstars DoNs sort of work that way nowadays. It used to be play down to five and every remaining player doubled his buy-in, but, to promote action (and to stop the mass-multitabling farming of these games), currently the prize pool gets divided among the remaining players according to chipstack.

If the re-buys are limited (in time or in number), I sorta like this idea. A little too much of a fish trap perhaps, but as long as the fish don't realise this: sign me up.

[RyckyRych]

I think FTP had this in a way, the cashout MTTs let you do just that, but only from a pool of money set aside for such actions (I think half). You could also elect how many chips you wanted to cashout, didn't have to be all of them. I also believe once the FT was reached the cashout option was removed, IDR.

I just played it like any other turbo MTT I'd play since I never would cashout.

[Tim]

Yep, Mel Judah developed this concept a few years ago:

Cashout Poker | Official History of Cashout Poker Tournaments | Cashout Poker

I'm guessing he made money by licensing the rights to the concept / name.

I just played it like any other turbo MTT I'd play since I never would cashout.

Why bother playing a cashout tournament then?

I don't think I've ever played a cashout tournament in my life. It's an interesting concept but it has never really appealed to me.

[RyckyRych]

Why bother playing a cashout tournament then?

Because people were dumb enough to cashout, which means they ended up sacrificing equity for immediate return. I like that.

Plus it was a turbo MTT, I like them too.

[Tim]

Because people were dumb enough to cashout, which means they ended up sacrificing equity for immediate return. I like that.

Fair point.